Board 51: Examining the Impacts of Academic and Community Enrichment Resources on First-Year Civil Engineering Students

Mary Katherine Watson; Ally Kindel Martin; Ronald W. Welch; Kevin C Bower

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: Civil Engineering Division Poster Session
Tagged Division: Civil Engineering
Page Count: 19
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--30051
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/30051
Download Count: 279

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Paper Authors

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Mary Katherine Watson The Citadel orcid.org/0000-0003-1718-5825

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Dr. Mary Katherine Watson is currently an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Citadel. Prior to joining the faculty at The Citadel, Dr. Watson earned her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from The Georgia Institute of Technology. She also has BS and MS degrees in Biosystems Engineering from Clemson University. Dr. Watson’s research interests are in the areas of engineering education and biological waste treatment.

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Ally Kindel Martin The Citadel

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Ally Kindel Martin is the Director of Student Success in the School of Engineering. In her position, she has worked with the Supplemental Instruction program, launched STEM Freshmen Outreach initiatives, created an Engineering Mentor Connection program, and revitalized the Engineering Career & Networking Expo. She holds a M.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of South Carolina. Previously she worked as a Student Success Adviser and focused on early intervention initiatives. She has taught courses including First Year Seminar, Keys to Student Success and University 101.

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Ronald W. Welch The Citadel

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Ron Welch (P.E.) received his B.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics from the United States Military Academy in 1982. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1990 and 1999, respectively. He became the Dean of Engineering at The Citadel on 1 July 2011. Prior to his current position, he was the Department Head of Civil Engineering at The University of Texas at Tyler from Jan 2007 to June 2011 as well as served in the Corps of Engineers for over 24 years including eleven years on the faculty at the United States Military Academy.

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Kevin C Bower P.E. The Citadel

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Dr. Kevin Bower is a Professor and Assistant Provost for Academic Operations at The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Bower’s teaching research interests are in improving active learning environments, authentic assessment, and the development of classroom pedagogy to improve professional skills in engineering students.

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Abstract

The XXXX, a regional, teaching-focused institution, does not have a separate review and acceptance procedure for incoming engineering students. If accepted by the university, then the student is a member of the engineering program by simply declaring an engineering major. While open enrollment allows a diverse group of students to pursue engineering, it also leads to challenges related to student preparedness and retention. As documented in prior work, the Introduction to Civil Engineering course was successfully redesigned following a student success model. In addition to curricular reforms, a variety of co-curricular efforts have been implemented to encourage student retention, including supplemental instruction, STEM-focused tutoring sessions, STEM freshmen outreach events, mentoring events for minority students, and access to individual tutors. In this paper, we will describe our holistic approach to student success, with emphasis on analyzing the impacts on civil engineering student retention over past years. In addition to evaluating the impacts of our student success initiatives on a program level, we will also capture the impacts on a student-level. To accomplish this, we will use a short survey to identify and select a sample of civil engineering students with varying SAT/ACT scores who either frequently, sometimes, or never utilize academic support resources. Next, we will develop a semi-structured interview protocol targeted at capturing students’ individual experiences related to the first year course and attending (or not attending) co-curricular support activities. Student interviews will be recorded, transcribed, and open-coded to identify patterns in students’ experiences. Ultimately, we will use outcomes from our program- and student-level analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of our current first year initiatives, with emphasis on identifying strengths and opportunities for improvements. In addition, we seek to identify incentives and barriers to attendance at first-year events and support services in order to identify departmental and institutional strategies for encouraging students to be active participants in academic success.

Citation
Format

Watson, M. K., & Martin, A. K., & Welch, R. W., & Bower, K. C. (2018, June), Board 51: Examining the Impacts of Academic and Community Enrichment Resources on First-Year Civil Engineering Students Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30051

TY - CPAPER
AB - The XXXX, a regional, teaching-focused institution, does not have a separate review and acceptance procedure for incoming engineering students. If accepted by the university, then the student is a member of the engineering program by simply declaring an engineering major. While open enrollment allows a diverse group of students to pursue engineering, it also leads to challenges related to student preparedness and retention. As documented in prior work, the Introduction to Civil Engineering course was successfully redesigned following a student success model. In addition to curricular reforms, a variety of co-curricular efforts have been implemented to encourage student retention, including supplemental instruction, STEM-focused tutoring sessions, STEM freshmen outreach events, mentoring events for minority students, and access to individual tutors. In this paper, we will describe our holistic approach to student success, with emphasis on analyzing the impacts on civil engineering student retention over past years.

In addition to evaluating the impacts of our student success initiatives on a program level, we will also capture the impacts on a student-level. To accomplish this, we will use a short survey to identify and select a sample of civil engineering students with varying SAT/ACT scores who either frequently, sometimes, or never utilize academic support resources. Next, we will develop a semi-structured interview protocol targeted at capturing students’ individual experiences related to the first year course and attending (or not attending) co-curricular support activities. Student interviews will be recorded, transcribed, and open-coded to identify patterns in students’ experiences. Ultimately, we will use outcomes from our program- and student-level analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of our current first year initiatives, with emphasis on identifying strengths and opportunities for improvements. In addition, we seek to identify incentives and barriers to attendance at first-year events and support services in order to identify departmental and institutional strategies for encouraging students to be active participants in academic success.

AU - Mary Katherine Watson
AU - Ally Kindel Martin
AU - Ronald W. Welch
AU - Kevin C Bower P.E.
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 51: Examining the Impacts of Academic and Community Enrichment Resources on First-Year Civil Engineering Students
UR - https://peer.asee.org/30051
DO - 10.18260/1-2--30051
ER -